Walk around home

[katalen]

A walk around my home town, comments and thoughts welcome

[theantiquetiger]

I like many of these but you have a lot of flaws in each.

#1 - this has the making of a beautiful shot. You are over exposed and the water horizon is not level. It is a very nice angle to shoot but it is screaming HDR to get that great detail in the sky and the cliff.

#2 - the main subject (IMO) is too far to the bottom. This makes for a lack of subject matter.

#3 - this is very well exposed. The sky and scene are great, but still lack of subject matter

#4 - the subject is dead center and under exposed. You may want to rid the branches peeking in on the frame on the left side. I would have shot it not from dead on, but from more of an angle from right to left.

#5 - I love fishing boats. Once again, the subject matter is too far to the bottom of the frame.

Over all, you were in some very nice places to shoot. You composition is off. #1 has the best comp, you just lost detail.

[Marko]

Hi katalen!

I can see that you are trying to make good shots based on the compositions but I'm afraid most of the images need work - practise is the only way to get there and you have come to the right place

In general your most successful images will happen when there is a good 'story' going on in the image and the exposure is good. The 'story' or suggestion of story can be about anything, but it should be deliberate.
Stories are crafted in many ways and can be about colour, light, pattern, or an actual story (lovers holding hands in the street).
Storie are also crafted by deliberately placing interesting elements that work together in some way at different planes in the image.

Shots 1 and 2 have no significant story imo.
Shot 3 is starting to have a story. IMO, we need something important and sharp in the foreground though.
shot 4 is a solid image. It feels solemn to me and the interplay between the statues and sky works.
shot 5 - I can see thinking here. The shot doesn't work for me because of that huge expanse of brightness (which always commands our attention) in the center - but I can see by the placement of the boats on the edges that thought went into this.

Hope that may help and please keep on practising.

[Iguanasan]

You seem to have a good eye for photography and that is often the hardest part. You've picked some interesting subjects and have provided a nice glimpse into your home. There are some technical issues which you could work on to improve these shots and that's exactly what the forum is about. It's difficult to take in all the details on a bunch of images at once but AntiqueTiger has made some good points. Here are some of my comments.

I really like the composition in number 1. I think it could be a stronger image if the weather had cooperated more and it was a little less hazy. Perhaps a contrast levels adjustment would help with that or if it's in your neighbourhood, try taking the shot at a different time of day. Maybe early morning or evening? Those are the best times for landscapes.

The second one is quite nice. I really like the rushing water in this shot. If that was the subject you were photographing then you did well. I like the way the water pulls you into the shot and then your eye meanders down river. My only issue with this shot is that I wish the ground along the bottom was straight.

Number 3 would be stronger if it were not cut in half. You are photographing the beach here and I would have liked to have seen the bottom two thirds of the image be nothing but beach and let the top third be the trees and sky. I think the use of the rule of thirds would have helped here. Also, a longer exposure with a deeper depth of field would have allowed you to put more in focus and avoided the blurry foreground.

Number 4 is all about the monuments and the lines. For this type of shot you need to get the lines perfectly straight (in my opinion) to do a good job and while you are close it feels just a bit off.

I think the subject in number 5 is the sunset and this would have been a stronger shot if you had reduced the exposure to allow more of a sunset feel and let the ships go to a silhouette. Right now it feels over exposed where the sky is "blown".

I hope this helps.